A Crush?

The tapping of footsteps echoed in the dark and damp tunnel.

Zed and his new followers were getting close to the base. Although Zed already knew that the base they were headed for was his own, the others didn't.

He wanted to see their reaction when they all finally realised who was in charge. It wasn't simply for fun though. Zed wanted to see how they would react knowing that he truly was able to help them find strength. He would also need to show them his strength. This would ensure that they wouldn't betray him for anyone else.

"Here we are. Just up through this manhole, " announced Zack who now seemed relieved to finally escape the sewers.

Zack climbed the ladder and slowly pushed open the iron covering. He then proceeded to exit the sewers followed by the other five teens. Zed was the last to climb the ladder and when he did, the sunlight finally reached his eyes after being in the sewers for so long.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the brightness, as did everyone else's. Once everyone had gotten used to the light, they all scanned the surrounding area.

They had climbed up into an alleyway and therefore only two undead could be seen wondering.

Not to Zeds surprise, the group managed to easily dispose of these undead. Zack tapped his foot on the ground and the zombies began to walk towards him. While they did so, Ara moved to the side of the zombies. When the zombies got close to Zack, he pulled out a knife and stabbed it into its head. Following this, Ara pulled out her own knife and stabbed the second zombie in the back of the head.

This same process of killing the undead was used multiple times as the teens made their way through the back streets.

After dealing with so many zombies on their way, the group was glad to see the camp. Not only were they glad, but they also seemed to be surprised by it.

The only word that came to Zeds mind as he saw his own base was 'impressive'. Every door and window along the bottom two floors had been blocked off. The only entrance was the huge gate between two of the buildings which acted as walls. On the roofs of the buildings which acted as walls were soldiers with mounted machine guns and snipers.

Zack went to take a step closer to the base when a soldier spotted him. A bullet flew towards him and landed right between his feet. This caused Zack to take a full step backwards. The bullet had been shot with a suppressor so the sound wasn't all that loud.

"Who are you and what's your business here," asked a soldier from the top floor.

Zed guessed this was just precautions and simply let them continue what they were doing.

Zack checked both sides of the street for undead before shouting back to the soldier who had asked the question, "I am Zack Murphy, and we are here to take refuge!"

The main gate opened slightly and a second soldier came out. Going from person to person, he took any weapon he could find with caution. That was until he got to Zed.

When he saw Zed, he brought his radio to his mouth and gave the command to let them in. This was followed by a salute to Zed.

The gates opened and the confused teens followed behind Zed and the soldier who seemed to know each other.

Various ideas popped into their minds. Was he their leader or did he just know the soldier? Even though they wondered these things, they kept quiet and waited for an explanation.

Once the group entered the base, they could see children playing in the compound, civilians cooking food and doing other activities, and finally soldiers patrolling the area.

The group reached the main tent in the centre of the compound where Zed turned around, "Eat as much as you want, we aren't low on supplies."

This tent was one used for cooking and had three women actively cooking what looked to be canned beef and vegetables.

Their suspicions had been confirmed with this. He was obviously part of this group already. Most likely their leader with the amount of strength and knowledge which he held.

"Are you the leader around here?" Jin asked just to make sure.

Zed simply nodded and gave an order to the soldier who had escorted him, "I'll be taking a look around the base for a while. Just make sure that these guys are treated well."

The soldier nodded and Zed walked off in the direction of one of the buildings.

The mouths of the teens watered as they smelt the scent of a delicious meal in front of them. All they had eaten was scraps for the past few days. Since the power had turned off, all perishable foods had long gone off.

"Let's dig in guys! This looks amazing~" said Ara as she moved towards one of the plates of food sitting on a table.

The others followed and soon all were eating meat and vegetables. Although in the beginning of an apocalypse food would be scarce, eventually farming would come back so it wasn't like they hand eaten proper food for a long time.

"mm, it's pretty good, right? Grace said finishing her plate.

The other teens nodded their heads in response as they even cleaned their plates with their fingers.

"Boss really is amazing. Not only is he able to take down multiple zombies by himself, but he is also able to lead such a large group of survivors so early into the apocalypse, " added Sofie with a blush.

The teens noticed something off about this. All stared at her trying to figure out what it was and eventually Zack's head shot up once he understood.

"Haha you like the boss, don't you?" Zack laughed while pointing at her.

Sofie tensed up and she covered her face in embarrassment, "no, no way! You're lying... Why are you always like this Zack?"

Everybody laughed at this. Even Sofie let out a little giggle. Zack had always been this way. He was a jerk but still loved deeply by everyone in the group.

Zack moved over to Sofie who was still covering her face and put his arm around her shoulder. He leant in and whispered into her ear, "I'll help you get him, so don't even worry about it."

"Hehe, thanks bro, " she whispered back with a small giggle.